


Announcement

by mcmachine



Series: Missed Moments [6]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 22:29:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14342298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmachine/pseuds/mcmachine
Summary: Based off of the end of 10x21. What went down after April dropped the truth bomb.





	Announcement

**_ APRIL _ **

In and out, easy. All I needed to do was get was my iPod.

The naive thoughts run through my head until I hear the sound of the front door opening and keys jingling, tensing for a brief moment before letting out a sigh. I should have known that Jackson would be getting home any minute now. I take a deep breath, bracing myself for the conversation.

"Hey." Jackson's voice greeted me and I turned around to face him. I don't want to say a word, not in the middle of the fight we're having. "So you are…." I hold up the iPod in my hand as some kind of explanation, shoulders sinking. "Right." He walked past me without saying another word, setting down his bag on one of the bar stools.

"Uh, I'll see you tomorrow." I murmured, sullen and beginning to drag my feet toward the door.

"April." His firm voice prompted me to stop, turning to face him with sunken shoulders. "I said a lot of things the other night that I regret. And I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings." He apologized.

I barely smile. "I'm sorry too." I am. I really am.

"Good. So come home. Stay. This is a conversation we're always gonna have to have. It's a part of who we are. It's gonna take some talking. But we got married. We love each other. We made vows to push through this sort of thing." Jackson pleaded with me. There's something gentle and desperate about his voice. I want to give in. I want to come home and be with my husband. But there are hurdles that I don't know how to get past and I'm terrified to tell him the truth.

"I know." I nodded, setting down my iPod and stepping toward him." I love you too, and we made a commitment."

"And if you believe in God, then you believe he made me." Jackson countered, stepping forward. "Your husband, who shares your values, which I do. I believe we shouldn't kill or steal. I believe that you should be truthful. I believe that you should treat others the way you want to be treated."

"I agree." My eyes shut, pushing hair away from my face.

"So then, we can push through this problem. At our core, we believe the same things." Jackson insisted.

"Until I think about telling our children how unbelievably loved they are by the creator of the universe, who also made them, and I can just see you standing there, judging and dismissive, and I just can't get past it." I rambled on, hands erratically moving to emphasize my point.

"Can we please just take a break from our hypothetical children for–" he tried, but I cut him off.

"No, we can't, because they're not hypothetical anymore." I pause unsteadily, looking up at the wide eyes that I'd fallen in love with time and time again, staring at me with shock and seeking out confirmation that what he had heard was true. "Jackson, I am pregnant."

Silence falls between the two of us for a few moments as he processed what I had said. It's not the way that I wanted to tell him, it's not the way that I wanted to go about any of this. I wanted to do something cute, something meaningful. Something that would make him happy and he would never forget. Maybe the latter would be true, the way that I had just dropped this bomb not him in the middle of our first real fight as a couple. But it wasn't the way that I wanted to go about any of this.

"You're pregnant?" Jackson questioned for confirmation, staring at me intently.

"I haven't gone for an ultrasound because I wanted to wait and do it together but… that's what my blood work said, yeah." My hands folded in front of my stomach uneasily, fingers interlocked and twisting together slightly, nerves eating away uneasily at my stomach. Or maybe it was morning sickness. It was hard to tell.

Jackson stepped toward me and wrapped his arms around my frame, setting his chin on top of my head. I feel small against him but even while fighting, when he pulled me in like this, I feel safe and I know that I'm home.

"We'll figure this out," he insisted, pulling back just enough and placing one of his large hands on my stomach.

I want to believe him. I do. I'm desperate for some kind of understanding of everything going on, of the new challenge that had been thrown into both of our lives and the way that we're supposed to navigate it. But instead, I'm still at a loss for words. I don't know how to get past the giant obstacle between the two of us. The gap in my faith and his lack of had never seemed so gaping until known.

"We'll figure this out, April, you hear me?" Jackson bent down as he spoke again, grabbing my gaze. "Maybe not tonight. But we have some time, okay? We can do this. We can." His hand came up to cup my face, thumb drawing along my cheekbone. "Just have a little faith."

"Okay," I breathed out, not sure what else to say. "Okay."

"Stay tonight," he pleaded with me. "Come home."

I stared at him for only a moment before I give in with a nod of my head, bringing up a hand to my eyes and wiping away at the moisture that had formed there. Maybe it would be easier with him knowing. It gave the both of us a concrete reason to figure it out, instead of just bouncing the idea back and forth in my head.

"I still have some stuff at Callie and Arizona's," I muttered. "I'll go get it tomorrow." I nuzzled my face into his neck and chest area for a moment, relishing in his arms wrapping around me once again.

"Have you already eaten dinner?" He asked, stroking his hand along my hair, running his fingers through it and catching a tangle or two from the frizz.

"A little. I couldn't stomach much." I admitted, giving a shrug as best as I could inside his embrace.

"Why don't you sit down?"

Under normal circumstances, I probably would have put up a fuss about being babied just because I was pregnant. Sure, pregnancy could be a life-threatening medical condition under the wrong circumstances. But my mom and sisters had all done it like it was old hat and I was determined to do the same, too. I step out of my shoes and plop down on the couch heavily, letting a sigh fall through my lips.

Jackson joined me after only a moment, handing me a bottle of coconut water. I give him a tired smile for a moment before twisting it open and swallowing a few mouthfuls, capping it again and leaning into his frame.

"I love you," I reminded him gently, shutting my eyes for a moment.

"I love you too," Jackson echoed the sentiment and pressed another kiss on top of my head.

"I don't suppose that I can blame this on hormones, can I?" I chuckled weakly, a little exasperated. I knew that I had been all over the place lately but it definitely hadn't just been because of the surging hormones in my system with the little baby inside of me.

"I don't think so," Jackson chuckled. "But we can get this past this and you know that. We'll figure it out. We've got, what, eight months? And then after that, years before we have to have real conversations with the little guy. We have plenty of time to figure out what we're going to tell them and how we're going to raise them. It's not a conversation that we have to rush."

His words did bring me some comfort. Even if it's hard to not have the answers as immediately as I want them, we're both far away from having to have any kind of existential conversations with our children. I did want to raise the child believing and loving God. Jackson being an atheist would challenge that. But if anything, it gave an opportunity to make sure that the child's faith was real, authentic. That it wasn't just because they had been raised in a Christian household.

"You're right," I agreed with a small nod of my head. I leaned forward and placed the water bottle on the coffee table, adjusting against him. After a moment, I pop open the button of my jeans, sighing with the immediate relief it brings.

"Are you sure you're pregnant?" His hand moved to my stomach again. "I think you're too skinny to be pregnant," he teased, nosing my cheek.

"You can't tell that I'm bloated?" I asked looking up at him.

He shook his head. "Nope."

I pulled up my printed close to bear my stomach to the both of us, pale as ever and no real proof of the life inside. Being slouched like this gives a little bit of a roll, but it looks the same as always to me.

"Cute belly," Jackson shifted and adjusted so that he could blow raspberries against my stomach and I can't help but laugh loudly. "For a very cute mommy."

"Are we going to start calling each other mommy and daddy now?" I asked, beginning to give a real smile.

"I was wondering when I could get you to call me daddy." Jackson retorted without missing a beat, looking up at me with a wide smirk. I can't even muster up a glare at him, only laughing and shaking my head. All he does is blow another noisy raspberry against my stomach.

"Stop it, that tickles," I barely resist, pushing away his head.

He grinned at me a moment longer and just blew another one right beneath my belly button. I squirm but only more laughter fell from my lips, shaking my head. He's goofy and trying to pick my mood back up, I know. It was working, too. I'm smiling and the way that he looks at me only made me want to smile even more.

"You're smiling." Jackson's words were a singsong, pressing one hand down on the sofa to lift himself back up and place a kiss on my lips.

"Yeah, 'cause you're being a goofball." I wrapped my arms around his neck to return to the kiss and Jackson pulled me onto his laps. I moved to straddle him naturally, the difference in our height made up perfectly whenever I was on top of him like this. I lean into him comfortably. It's a sensual and intimate position, yet at the moment, it's not entirely sexual. The closeness was the breath of fresh air that the both of us needed after the fight that we had been having.

His hands move and settle on my hips for a moment, pulling me in a little closer. I nipped at his lower lip gently before breaking the kiss, pressing my forehead into his.

"Why don't you take a shower and we head to bed early? Plenty of rest is good for expectant mothers." Jackson reminded me. After a moment I nod my head in agreement, sliding off of his lap.

I get into the shower and take my time, embracing the steam without having to worry about Callie or Arizona thinking I was using too much water. It feels good to scrub my scalp and exfoliate my entire body until I'm as soft as a baby's bum. I'm a little pink by the time that I finally step out of the shower again and wrap up in a fluffy towel, but I feel about ten times better stepping out than I had stepped in.

Drying off slowly, I put on a pair of comfortable pajamas. Little cotton shorts and one of Jackson's t-shirts, it smelled like him. I can't help but breathe in the scent even though I know tonight I'm going to get to fall asleep curled in his arms.

After my hair is wrung out and no longer dripping behind me, I grab a bottle of lotion and walk into the bedroom. Jackson's long legs are stretched out across the bed and he's scrolling on his phone, brows furrowed in deep thought at whatever he was reading at the moment.

"Hi," I plopped down next to him, trying to get a peek at his phone.

"Hey." He leaned over, giving me a quick kiss. "Here, let me." Before I could put up a fight, he's already taken the bottle of lotion out of my hand and begun to squirt some into his hand.

I stretched out my legs across his lap and laid down properly, letting him work magic as he rubbed lotion up and down. His hands are big and feel especially soft massaging coconut smelling lotion into my legs. Jackson took a little extra time with rubbing my feet and I can't help but let out a few soft moans at just how good it feels to have his thumbs digging into the sore arches of my feet.

"I should have you do this every day," I commented, arching my back and stretching it out.

"I will if that's what you want." He murmured, lifting up my foot and pressing an open mouth kiss on the side of it. I'm just ticklish enough that it gets a squeal out of me.

"First you comment about me calling you daddy, now you're kissing my foot…" I started with a shake of my head. "You're really feeling sex-starved, aren't you?" I teased him, unable to help a large smile creeping across my features.

Jackson finished up with rubbing the lotion on my legs, twisting around to set it on the nightstand. "Maybe a little bit…" he commented, adjusting and beginning to press a few kisses against my neck.

"I just want to kiss you right now," I admitted with a small shrug.

He was happy to comply with the request, pulling me down a little further and pressing his lips into my mouth. I moan comfortably, hands running up and down the length of my sides. No matter how long we had been together and how many times we had done this, there's always a thrill in kissing him, a little jolt of electricity that runs through every nerve ending in my body. That was the magic of being in love, without a doubt. I hummed under my breath, pleased and a little more than excited. His head was shaved short, but there's still just enough stubble on his chin that it tickled against mine.

Even if I can't tell completely whether or not he wanted more out of the situation, there is something magical with just the simplicity of making out with him like a horny teenager. My hormones had been all over the place lately, after all, even if sex, for the most part, hadn't been on my mind. It'd been sweet listening to Callie and Arizona plan for a baby and timing it, knowing that we were already expecting one of my own.

Oxygen eventually is prioritized over the sweetness of kissing him, pulling away just barely, pressing my forehead into his again. His hand came up and rubbed a thumb across my cheek, combing back long waves of hair away from my face.

"I'm sorry for running away from you," I murmured, brushing my nose again his. "I wish I was better at staying and talking things out." I knew it was a flaw of mine. I'd done the same thing after we slept together the first time, pretty much, even if getting fired and having to go back to Moline had been a pretty good excuse at the time. "You know me. I'm crazy."

"It's okay," Jackson breathed out, giving a slight nod of the head. "I married you knowing who you are."


End file.
